An aerial image of campus looking down from the heavens followed a blessing in a language no longer spoken here.
The language was Mohawk, and the videotaped message was one of meticulous thanksgiving — a naming of nature’s gifts that started with grass and medicinal plants and ended with the “grandfather sun,” “grandmother moon,” the stars and the creator.
So began ACPHS’ second Land Acknowledgement Ceremony, led by student Audrey DeGraw, a senior in the Microbiology Department. DeGraw has worked with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since last year to share her Native heritage with the campus community. The Land Acknowledgement was timed to commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day.
The ceremony honored not only the Mohawk but also the Mohican and Schaghticoke tribes, all Indigenous Peoples who originally inhabited the land that is now campus. DeGraw, who descends from the Onondaga Nation of Central New York, concluded a ceremony that was solemn yet upbeat with an evocative image of her own, a photograph of clouds, backlit from sunlight and almost glowing, above a dark silhouette of forest.
For her, the image symbolized what she hoped the Land Acknowledgement Ceremony could be — a way out of the darkness of ignorance about Native American heritage.
“With this acknowledgement,” she said, “we can honor the peoples of this land.”
Two students in attendance said they came to support DeGraw and also learn more about the Indigenous Peoples of upstate New York. Abimael Marrero and Valerie Carrillo said they were familiar with the histories of people in Puerto Rico and Mexico, respectively, but had not known much about the Iroquois Confederacy, the joining together of five tribes in Central New York, which DeGraw discussed.
DEI Assistant Vice President Jonathan Phipps said that he has found the ceremony to be an important addition to the campus schedule and he intends to continue it each year.
